Brave or Stupid?

Because Troy has worked so much overtime the last few weeks, he was able to take Thursday and Friday off last week. We decided to head an hour south to Lake Patagonia for some wakeboarding and camping. Our friends Steve and Kalli came along. Originally, we were going to camp Thursday night, wakeboard Friday and come home Friday evening. However, this happened Thursday night:






So, then we decided to leave early Friday morning and wakeboard and stay Friday night (You can't wakeboard on Saturday because the lake is so small and too many people show up). It was perfect and Erica did a FANTASTIC job. I was very worried about her being too hot, not being in her own bed, etc., but she loved it. She even got in the lake a few times and drove the boat (sort of).







When the water got choppy on Friday afternoon, we drove another 15 minutes south to cross the border and get some authentic Mexican lunch in Nogales. Erica is now an official international traveler. (Pictures coming)

It was interesting, on the way there, the American side of Nogales looked very much like Mexico. Then we crossed the border and it turned crazy!!! Drivers weren't paying attention to stop signs or lines in the road, beggars were all over the street, etc. We even saw the aftermath of a car accident and it took at least 15 minutes for an ambulance to finally show up. Plus, some policemen arrived with machine guns. I was excited to leave. After we crossed back over the border, it was amazing how much the American side of Nogales looked like America. God bless America!

"Arizona's so hot!!"

Although Arizona has a reputation for being hot, I just want to point out the high's today in a couple of cities:

Vail, AZ (Where we live): High of 93, Feels like 89

Salt Lake City: High of 98, Feels like 91

Seattle: High of 82, Feels like 83

Whittier, CA: High of 83, Feels like 83

Temecula, CA: High of 93, Feels like 91

Washington, D.C.: High of 85, Feels like 87

Rochester, NY: High of 73, Feels like 73

It's really not so bad as everyone thinks. Plus, we have lovely weather from September/October to May. (This is just my plug to get more people to move here.)

The Difference

Although I'm not the biggest fan of McCain, I think he is the best alternative (especially considering that my husband's job depends a lot upon money being invested in our country's defense budget). Thanks to Heather for posting this:

Wakeboarding in June

Last week we got to go wakeboarding and had lots of fun.

Troy about to do a 360.


Troy getting some sweet air.



Nancee looking really mad at the wake.

Happy Father's Day

Troy has wanted a trampoline for a long time, but he's always wondered how he could justify buying one and still be a "grown up." Well, he finally just gave up on that idea and got one for Father's Day. We are having lots of fun with it. Even Erica.

Backyard Progression

Have you ever noticed how your life becomes one big blog? What I mean, is that, anytime something is happening in our lives, I immediately being to think about the pictures I'm going to put on the blog and the captions I'm going to write, etc. Anyway, the latest blog-worthy event happened last weekend, when the Elder's Quorum came to our house on Saturday morning to help us move 12 tons of rock to our backyard. We would have never finished without them and we are sooooo grateful for their willingness to help. By the way, the following pictures are with our new camera. We LOVE it!!

This is about a quarter of the rock pile. (I didn't remember to grab my camera until the end).


The backyard:

A patch of grass is going in that dirt square eventually.

9 Months Old

Erica just had her 9 month well-visit. She's is perfectly healthy and we are so grateful. She started "crawling" the day before her appointment. She can go a few crawls until she is close enough to the object she wants and then she lunges forward. More than anything, she just wants us to hold her hands so she can walk around everywhere. Recently, she discovered the excitement of pulling herself up to a standing position in the crib. Time to lower the mattress- again. She is a fantastic eater and pretty good sleeper. Nothing keeps her attention for more than 10 minutes though, so I find it a challenge to entertain her all the time. Separation anxiety has just hit too. She now screams when I sit her down or hand her to other people. At least she still goes to Troy. I love being a stay-at-home mom more than working (I get to go swimming in the middle of the day). Some of the days are challenging, but her cuteness and chunkiness make it worth it.

Stats
Height: 27.0 inches (31%)
Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (16%)
HEAD: 45.5 cm (87%)

"Google Reader is the Best...

True dat. Double True." (If this makes no sense to you, it's worth doing a search on YouTube for Chronic of Narnia)

So I have to give a shout out to Gretchen M. who posted about Google Reader and in so doing has saved me many, many hours. Thank you, thank you. If you don't know about this, it is worth checking out. It updates you whenever someone posts on their blog. I used to spend hours checking out blogs to see if there were any new posts. Now I never have to check, I'm automatically notified. Maybe this is borderline on laziness, but I'll do whatever saves me time.

On that note, it doesn't work for private blogs. So, I've starred all the private blogs on my list. That way I don't have to think about which ones I still need to check myself, I can just look for the star. That definitely falls in the laziness category.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Desert Museum 2007

Desert Museum 2008

Memorial Day Weekend

No, our new camera hasn't arrived yet, but Troy's sister Molly and her husband Brad came to visit us over Memorial weekend and Brad used his super nice camera. So these are some shots from him.

Saguaro National Park


Kayla swimming in a pond near our home. There is actually water in Tucson.


Molly and Erica swimming in our pool.


Erica loves to swim! She is taking swim lessons right now. It actually consists of me getting in the pool with her and hanging out, but it's still fun.

The family at Saguaro National Park.

Camera Purchased

Thanks to everyone for all the great advice on cameras. We ended up going with the Canon Powershot SD 750. It was within our budget and seemed to meet all our needs according to the reviews. We'll let you know how we like it when it arrives.